Today's Opinions

A recent article in the Beacon highlighted an awards ceremony for volunteers for their service to Brunswick County.

Recipients were individuals and groups cited for their contributions as part of the Governor’s Award for outstanding service to the county.

Among those worthy recipients for honors bestowed was special recognition for the St. James Fire Department and its large volunteer organization, including a fire auxiliary that raises money and provides support and maintenance.

It’s always great to hear of billionaires donating money and resources to organizations, especially children’s charities, but to me, it means more when you hear of hard-working, everyday people going the extra mile to make a contribution or donation simply because they want to, not because they have an extra million or two laying around and send out press releases announcing their good deeds to the world.

According to the North Carolina State Center for Health Statistics, in Brunswick County in 2007, 183 women younger than 19 became pregnant. The youngest reported was a mere 12 years old. Across the state, more than 20,000 women younger than 19 got pregnant last year.

In the Brunswick County Health Department’s Community Assessment for 2007, the report indicated the county “continues to have an unusually high rate of teen pregnancy,” referring to 296 children born to mothers younger than 19 during a year-and-a-half period.

If you owned a television at all in 1988 you probably remember the scene that played out on countless “entertainment” television shows, and the follow-up images and stories that later came in newspapers and magazines.

That was the year media tycoon Oprah Winfrey rolled a wagon of fat onto the set of her show representing the 67 pounds she reportedly lost. Since then the daytime talk show host has become a spokesperson for many—touting eating healthier and exercising.

Since we’re knocking on 2009’s door, this is the time of the year when, among everything else, we’re inundated with the “best-ofs” and the “year-in-reviews” and all other shows, programs, stories and broadcasts remembering all things great in 2008.

I watched one such show last week, and I think that’ll be enough to last me for at least another year.

I found it mind-numbingly predictable, and I’m willing to bet all the rest will be equally unsurprising.

I don’t think any of us needed an official announcement to know that. We’ve seen too many of our neighbors and friends losing jobs, losing income and struggling to make it. We’ve experienced it ourselves.

It’s good to know, then, in these troubled times, some people are stepping up to the plate to make things a little better here in Brunswick County.

To the editor: I would like to know who thought up the turnaround on U.S. 17 and Ocean Isle Beach Road?

Instead of putting up a traffic light, which would have been safer for drivers, now they have you crossing three lanes to make a U-turn to go south on U.S. 17.

I feel this must have been a first-grade project. I don’t think an adult would have thought of something like this turnaround. It is backing up traffic on Ocean Isle Beach Road, which we never had before this turnaround was put in.